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Why do we believe in the resurrection of the dead?
We believe in the resurrection of the dead because Christ rose from the dead, lives forever, and causes us to share in this eternal life.
When someone dies, his body is buried or cremated. Nevertheless, we believe that there is a life after death for that person. In his Resurrection, Jesus showed that he is Lord over death; his word is trustworthy: "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live" (Jn 11:25b).
Why do we believe in the resurrection of the "body"?
In Jesus Christ, God himself took on "flesh" (Incarnation) in order to redeem mankind. The biblical word "flesh" characterizes man in his weakness and mortality. Nevertheless, God does not regard human flesh as something inferior. God does not redeem man's spirit only; he redeems him entirely, body and soul.
God created us with a body (flesh) and a soul. At the end of the world he does not drop the "flesh" like an old toy. On the "Last Day" he will remake all creation and raise us up in the flesh - this means that we will be transformed but still experience ourselves in our element. For Jesus, too, being in the flesh was not just a phase. When the risen Lord showed himself, the disciples saw the wounds on his body. (YOUCAT questions 152-153)
Dig Deeper: CCC section (988-991) and other references here.
Part 1: The Profession of Faith (26 - 1065)
Section 2: The Profession of the Christian Faith (185 - 1065)
Chapter 3: I Believe in the Holy Spirit (683 - 1065)
Article 11: "I believe in the resurrection of the dead" (988 - 1019)
The Christian Creed — the profession of our faith in God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and in God's creative, saving, and sanctifying action — culminates in the proclamation of the resurrection of the dead on the last day and in life everlasting.
We firmly believe, and hence we hope that, just as Christ is truly risen from the dead and lives for ever, so after death the righteous will live for ever with the risen Christ and he will raise them up on the last day.534 Our resurrection, like his own, will be the work of the Most Holy Trinity: If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit who dwells in you.535
534.
Cf. Jn 6:39-40.
535.
Rom 8:11; cf. 1 Thes 4:14; 1 Cor 6:14; 2 Cor 4:14; Phil 3:10-11.
The term "flesh" refers to man in his state of weakness and mortality.536 The "resurrection of the flesh" (the literal formulation of the Apostles' Creed) means not only that the immortal soul will live on after death, but that even our "mortal body" will come to life again.537
536.
Cf. Gen 6:3; Ps 56:5; Isa 40:6.
537.
Belief in the resurrection of the dead has been an essential element of the Christian faith from its beginnings. "The confidence of Christians is the resurrection of the dead; believing this we live."538 How can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. ... But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.539
538.
Tertullian, De res. 1,1:PL 2,841.
539.